The Opioid Crisis Is Surging In Black, Urban Communities

The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country.

"It's a frightening time," says Dr. Edwin Chapman, who specializes in drug addiction in Washington, D.C., "because the urban African-American community is dying now at a faster rate than the epidemic in the suburbs and rural areas."

Chapman is on the front line of the opioid epidemic crippling his community in the Northeast section of Washington. He heads the Medical Home Development Group, a clinic specializing in addiction medicine.

About a dozen patients sit in the lobby of his clinic on a recent Monday morning. The clinic is on a busy street, and even on the second floor you can hear blaring ambulances whiz by — Chapman says often they stop right outside his building.

"Sometimes we'll have a cluster of folks outside selling drugs," he says. "We've had overdoses right outside, right under the building, right next door to the building."